Saturday, December 19, 2009

Puppy Deaths?

This blog has been smouldering on the back burner for quite some time. I saw two things and then was reading Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind and some things came together, at least, it seemed to at the time.

The first event was this: walking to school past the city maintenance building and heard yelping/crying of sorts. Not terribly odd on a cold morning but looked around to see where it was coming from. Next to the small white maintenance building was a pile of dogs. Apparently not all of them had been finished off properly... At certain times during the year dogs are shot and disposed of because they likely won't survive the upcoming cold temperatures or are a nuisance. If you want your dog spared you tie something around its neck on those nights and hope the gun carriers notice.

The next day I was walking by the kindergarten again on my way to work. In front of the school was a large crow (a large black bird of some sort, not certain) making quite the noises. Looked over to see that it was on its back trying to flip itself back over, which seemingly wasn't going to happen... Seemed ironic.

Then, like I mentioned, I was reading Suzuki with these things still on my mind. He describes visiting a waterfall. He argues that single existences are like the drops that fall in the waterfall: before the water reaches the falls it doesn't "feel" any discomfort it is just flowing along pleasantly, then it divides as it falls causing "pain" before finally reuniting with its watery friends forming a single unit at the bottom of the falls.

Maybe...

In other news I am in UB having just come back from Darkhan where I helped with a recording of the Secret History of Mongolia. Getting some work done in the city: picking up things for the library in Bayankhongor, recording some more piano pieces, and relaxing (maybe seeing the Nutcracker this evening). Then it's off to Darkhan again for Christmas and the weekend before going to visit family in Javkhlant for New Years!